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Agents of SHIELD pilot episode - even worse than The Avengers, but still better than Iron Man 2.
I'll watch it next week too, TV shows often start poorly... On the other hand even the worst episodes of Arrow were better than this. In fact AoS motivated me to finish the first series of Arrow, just to wash off the bad taste.

Sleepy Hollow is still highly entertaining. This week's episode is about the crispy corpse of a witch coming back to life and searching for its bones while Ichabod Crane watches Rise of the Planet of the Apes of the Subtitle and complains about pastry taxation.

So last week New Girl came back with an okay episode, but fortunately this weeks was much better, although I don't think quite at the stride of season 2. I'm sure it'll get there though. There was a new show I started watching too, a police procedural comedy with Andy Samberg (of SNL and Lonely Island fame) called Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I thought the pilot showed potential, but was a bit hokey and whilst I think the second episode was better, I still don't think it's really grabbed me properly yet. I know a few people compared the pilot of it and 30 Rock, but I was instantly on board with 30 Rock because it just struck me well. I feel like B99 just tries a little too hard and needs to find its place.

Very much looking forward to getting around to watching Agents of SHIELD and then The IT Crowd finale special on Friday.

Agents of SHIELD pilot episode - even worse than The Avengers, but still better than Iron Man 2.
taxation.

I usually agree with you, but boo! BOO!!

I think Agents of SHIELD will be my kind of silly. It's got that easy conversational style of Joss Whedon's other stuff, a cast of pretty people and a premise that isn't really fixed, which is cool because they could really do whatever they want with it. So with the pilot in mind, I'm in. I will watch this every week. That said, I'm not excusing the pilot because parts of it were good and parts of it were less so. I don't think it was ever unwatchable, but there were a few scenes that maybe needed to be a bit less tacky. I'm not expecting ultra-serious, although I do envisage some stories will be and that's fine, but if the base-line is Thor, I think that'll sit comfortably with me. It could be a lot better, but it could also be far, far worse. We'll see what the future episodes bring*, but I'm hopeful.

*And by that I mean Agent Maria Hill. Cobie Smulders? More like Cobie Smoulders, am I right?! God I hate myself.

Then there's The IT Crowd finale. As someone who's seen most of the episodes, but my no means all, it was a fun send off. Definitely picked up pace too as it went along. The references and self-awareness (particularly at the end) were handled pretty well and I liked the whole stab at internet culture. I'm glad it ended on a high note anyhow. Oh, and only if you've watched the episode, this.

Yeah, Agents of SHIELD did enough to keep me watching, particularly as (with the notable exception of Firefly, which is somewhat ironic considering its early bath) Whedon shows tend to get off to fairly average starts before picking up as the characters/style beds in.

Found it to be a bit overly cheesy at times but there's enough promise there to keep me watching.

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IT Crowd finale confirmed for me that Matt Berry is horribly underrated, O'Dowd and Ayoade seem to get most of the praise that goes towards the show but most of the funniest bits are down to Berry's ridiculous delivery. Enjoyed it and it was a fitting end to a sitcom that, while it never reached the heights of Father Ted or Black Books, was always entertaining.

After failing to see what is so great about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia numerous times, I gave a few more episodes a go and been getting into it. While it's not laugh-out-loud funny, it's amusing and pretty mindless for when I just want to switch my brain off and watch someone get hurt or insulted :p

Tho, halfway through season 2, I am growing a bit weary of the cast since they're pretty much equally insufferable assholes and hypocrites with no redeeming qualities. I know that's the show's whole shtick, but it gets a little repetitive/1-dimensional after a while.

Also, half the episodes are like Charlie-centric, the show's practically all about his weirdness.

*And by that I mean Agent Maria Hill. Cobie Smulders? More like Cobie Smoulders, am I right?! God I hate myself.

True story, one of my flat-mates at uni was Coby Smulders' cousin, at the time she was not particularly well-known as HIMYM hadn't been on air long. It was a sort of 'oh, that's pretty cool' thing and now she's sort of a big movie star type.

I rather enjoyed the IT crowd finale and while I do like Matt Berry and his delivery, I don't think they ever really figured out how to make his character mesh properly with the show. Episodes that focus on Douglas tended to do so at the expense of Roy and Moss who were more consistently funny characters. Douglas is a bit sort of 'say something wacky, with very strange inflection', which is less sustainable and interesting, even if it does produce some comic gems.

Agents of SHIELD: As a fan of the Marvel cinematic universe, I really liked this one. The dialogue feels very "Whedon-esque", and the show hints at some mysteries that should be interesting in the long run.

The Blacklist: Seems a lot like Silence of the Lambs as a procedural. James Spader as the villain was really great, not so much the protagonists who seems very bland. Hopefully they'll get fleshed out more in the future. Interesting so far.

Atlantis: Wasn't really taken with this one. Nothing you haven't seen before. Like Hercules, but without the sillyness and self-awareness.

On the other hand, finished another marathon of Orphan Black. That show is just amazing, especially when you notice little details you haven't seen the first time.

I think the ending would have been disappointing if it was anything other than what did happen. Everything tied up with a fitting conclusion and still tons of moments of being tense. (EDIT: Also, that column. Great cinematography.)

[Spoilers]I don't think there was much doubt that Jesse would be saved, but I didn't know at what cost. It was ultimately at Walt's own and this episode at least went some way to redeeming him. That's not to say he's in the clear, obviously, but when he came out and said to the two people who trusted him most that it was about him, it was him also actually doing it for them too. Him dying in the meth lab was as fitting as you were going to get, although I did catch myself saying "He's going to blow it up." Not that that'd have made any difference really.

And I'd agree with you Lamb, the 'hitmen' were fantastic. I thought we'd seen the last of them, but at the end they proved to be as reliable as ever![/Spoilers]